right here goes
monday -- day off, had a nice day
tuesday -- go off to clean on a new estate near me ( my MP3 broke, not a problem, 10 quid online, but no music allways puts me in a bad mood ) , goes well in the morning, then i get some idiot complain because im 2 weeks late, i know im 2 weeks late, i didnt work much in july ( because of the rain ) i explain this, she says " im not interested in excuses " fair enough, i then say next time i will pop and do them in the rain, she says " i dont want them done in the rain ", i just carry on with the clean and get paid
next house, i picked up last time, it hasnt been done for 3 years, its a MOD house, i expained last time i come around 6 weeks ( depending on the weather ) she was happy with that, i knock on the door to get paid, i clean the tops TWICE on first cleans, they were filthy, she pays me, and then says " i dont want them done next time, i will have them done the week B4 Christmas " i explain i dont mind every other clean, but thats it, she says " knock on the door before you do them, if im in i will either say Yes or No
this really pee'd me off as we had agree'd every 6 weeks
Today -- i clean a few houses, i get to a house that owes me 2 cleans , they say " oh i didnt realise you had done them " i explain they would have had a ticket each time AND then on thursday i ticket to say i had missed them for collection " ( i dont normally collect, except this local estate, i sometimes walk my dog around whilsst collecting ), they then say " well we dont really care if they are clean or not , its not important " (
i will return to this point in a bit )
i then do a few more houses, get to this house and clean the first window upstairs, clean the cill with what look like a pile of bird mess, i clean the next window and get a really bad smearing effect, i bring my brush down and it turns out to be something that the lads of the house had squirted out of the window, i thought it was hair gel ( not a issue its water based ) it turns out to be some kind of grease
i try and clean the brush on the wall, try it on a dowstairs window, it drys with loads of greasy/ oily spots, i get the ladder off my car and try and clean them, no joy, they look crap ( i only put them on to fix a Downpipe for some1 ) i go home and clean the brush with fairy and hot water, seems ok, return to the house, stil drys all oily
i would have called it a day now BUT i had asked 3 to unlock side gates, so i wanted to get them done, i return home, take off old brush and fit all the fittings to a new brush i had, off i go again, i left the house it happened on as i couldnt see how i would fix the problem, i hope 6 weeks of sun / weather will help and i had spent 2 and 1/2 hours messing around on that house, off i go to the next house, i do a few more and the wife of the house comes home , i explain to her what happened, my husband will be home in a bit speak to him, i speak to his and he says " its that little poo of a boy" and he laughs and says " been a bad day for you then " i explain, yes to the tune of 2 and 1/2 hours wasted and brush ( worth 20 quid ) wasted " the guy just laughed
i pack up my kit and decide to phone around a few of my contacts in the building game
now, sure 1 bad day ( today ) and 1 allmost bad day ( yesterday ) isnt the end of the world
in a few weeks my daughter starts school full time, now i can work 5 days a week then, so ive been thinking on this, i have enugh work to work 4 days a week now ( i currently only do 3 days, then look after my daughter ) BUT i know i have enough for 4 days work, that i thought would do me, 1 day for rain or a day off, then in the school holidays i could drop back to 3 days
ive been thinking for a while now, do customers really care about the clean windows, as im getting more and more of a impression they dont really care, as long as they are clean-ish, they are happy, now i have allways done jobs the best i can, if it takes a extra few mins, then so be it, but im really struggling with the feeling that they just dont care
Another thing on my mind, the lack of job satisfaction, when i have done carpentery / building work, i can stand back and think, that looks a great job, the customer allways says " that looks great etc etc ) now i dont get this with windows, people pay and thats it, as above, do they even notice ?? ??
another thing, lack of challenge, now as people will know, ive been doing this for 4 and 1/2 years now ( so only a beginner
) the first challenge was to be able to use the sqeegee right, i picked up that, then i moved to WFP and that was a challenge, now i have nothing left to test me, i know i can use both methods to do a good job, so i have nothing left to challenge me in anyway
i have a nice round, very compact, enough work for 4 days a week with a 6 week turnaround, so why am i not happy ?? ??